Friday, December 7, 2012

It's been awhile since I did a general Owens family update, but since so many great things are happening I figured I'd take some time to share a bit of our world with you! Let me first start by saying this -- God has been so faithful to our family. I can't share that enough. We are not super parents, are we certainly are not super spiritual and yet God has chosen to do amazing things right before our very eye -- it blows my mind.

So let start with the house. Ugh this house. For those who are new to the story let me give you a quick recap. We put the house on the market this summer and it sold in less than a week for just a few grand under our asking price. After inspections happened it was found that we have a bad septic system -- bad as in thirty to forty thousand dollars bad. Our buyer walked away -- obviously. We decided to use all the money we have, which let's just say isn't a lot, to put in temporary holding tanks this spring, until the testing for the larger more expensive system is complete, which takes about two years. We decided that we would try to rent our home and move to a more ideal location for our family.

Long story short -- we decided to pull the house off the rental market. It just wasn't sitting with us right. It was causing stress that didn't need to be there. To be honest, I don't understand it. But one thing I've learned that sometimes being obedient to God doesn't always involve understanding or even agreement. So now we will wait a few months and try again after Madi finishes out her school year.

Being obedient is so difficult, especially when there isn't clear understanding -- but the peace that comes from being in the exact place God wants us is amazing.

It's all good.

In September I took a position at our new church as a member of the creative arts team. Basically, I get to be creative and use the gifts that God has given me. I do writing, a little graphic design and a bit of photography. I am extremely blessed to be a part of an amazing team. The story how this job came about is for a whole other post, but again, God just has this way of putting all the details into place in my life. Very cool.

Jayden is blowing us all away. His mind is healing and his personality is blooming. His frequent smile tells a story that would warm the coldest soul -- he is thriving! This week Jayden received his first set of hearing aids. Jayden is considered to have severe neural hearing loss due to his brain trauma. Yes, he can hear, but it is very difficult for him to comprehend what he is hearing. We have found both through home observation and testing in a hearing booth that he responds much better when the sounds are louder, at all frequencies. His face was amazing after we put on the hearing aids. He quickly lifted up his head, raised his eye brows and look side to side and gave us his happy face! So excited to see where this leads him and how his world is going to change.

This week something clicked in Angela. We have been trying to teach her how to walk in a gait trainer for the past two years. All the sudden within a three day time span she started to move -- as in move everywhere! Angela is so amazing. This week on the 10th we will celebrate two years since we brought her home forever. Thinking back on those first few months I can't even fathom how far she has come. To think that God has allowed us to call her our own -- saying thank you to him doesn't even touch my gratefulness. This little girl is not the same child we met December 2010. So happy to watch as Angela senses a deep pride in all her new found mobility!

Madison is having a great year at school -- her best yet! She was described at our parent teacher meeting as being compassionate and full of confidence -- that's our girl. The teacher explained that somehow Madison is able to identify the kids in the class who just need a little extra or need a friend and she immediately puts them under her wing. That doesn't surprise me. What makes me even proud, is that while having that deep compassion she still has total confidence and is willing to go against the crowd to help a friend.

There you have it. Welcome to our world. God continues to do amazing things in our life and the lives of our children. To think back on how this all started, on how God took the most horrific of situations and turned it into a blog post such as this -- totally mind blowing.